NordVPN’s strange onboarding policy rings familiar bells

And they aren’t nice bells, either, tbh.

The last non-remote job I had was at a physical store.


I managed a mobile network operator franchise for nearly four years and one of the recurring complaints from customers was that mobile carriers, almost with no exception, prioritise onboarding new customers rather than keeping the ones you already have happy.


Nearly every offer available, and certainly the best ones, were targeted at new customers that were using rival carriers.


The same offers were almost never available for existing customers.


While this is certainly a great way to grow your customer base, it created an idiotic system whereby customers of Carrier A would switch to Carrier B, just so they could get back to Carrier A and get the new customer offer.


I’ve always thought it was stupid. But it was what it was, and it was a well-known practice in the industry, so we all did it.


I bring this up because I’ve used some of my CoinmarketCap diamonds to redeem a 2-year plan with NordVPN.


My current plan is expiring soon and the offer with CMC looked good. Two years + three months for about $3 a month.


To be totally honest, the offer with the CMC code was almost exactly the same as the base offer you get as a new customer but whatever. I digress.


The point is, I tried redeeming the offer with my existing account and it wasn’t available.


Rather than $3 a month, the only offer available to me, using the same account I already have, was for about $9 a month. Why?


And more importantly, what do you think I did about it? I did what every normal person would do. I signed up with a new account and redeemed the offer. When my current one expires, with the other account, I guess I’ll just let it die.


Now, 2 years + 3 months means I won’t have to think about VPNs again till 2026 but when the time comes, what should I do, create a new account again?


I’ll do it, no problem. The same way I, my colleagues and all of my customers did when we were in the mobile operator business.


But I thought it was dumb back then. And I think it’s still dumb now.

I’ve crossposted this article on Publish0x.

If haven’t yet, consider using Revolut as a substitute to traditional banking

Response to “NordVPN’s strange onboarding policy rings familiar bells”

  1. NordVPN is not as good as it used to be, or is it just me? – bitcoinea

    […] signed up for two years, then I needed to renew my subscription and because of NordVPN’s weird policy, I had to create a new account, and I’ve already prepaid till March […]

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